Left Voice

Latin America

US soldiers, get out of Costa Rica!

July 08, 2010

On the night of June 29, the entry into the country of 46 US warships with the ability to transport 200 military helicopters, among which are included the SH-60, HH-60B, and Black Hawk gunships, as well as CH-46 helicopters and AV-8B Harrier aircraft, was approved in the Legislative Assembly. Together with this arsenal, permission was given for 7,000 US soldiers to be able to "enjoy freedom of movement and the right to carry out activities they consider necessary in the fulfillment of their mission," under the assumption that their aim is to support the struggle against drug trafficking, and to offer humanitarian aid and build schools.

This military penetration of the country only corresponds to the US plans of militarization (led by Obama), the aim of which is put what they consider their backyard under complete control, before possible social upheavals, while they continue taking positions in alliance with, and with the complete backing of the local governments, as has already been observed with the deployments begun in Mexico, that they are attempting to spread to South America, everything in the best style of the rehearsal they carried out with the occupation of Haiti during the catastrophe of the earthquake, beside the blue helmets [troops] of the UN and in the context of a world capitalist crisis, which continues unresolved.

Precisely the government of Laura Chinchilla, together with businessmen, sees in this pact the possibility of streamlining the repression and the crushing of any type of workers’ and popular struggle or demonstration, by complementing the function of the police at a time when they have introduced the Public Employment Law, together with pressures for approving big labor reforms in the private sector, as well as reducing the budget of the public universities, and the plans for privatization, as in the case of the docks and electric power.

The whole media bombardment about the presence of chiefs and members of the drug cartels (whose main points of support are the governments of the United States and Colombia) pursues leveling the road to this new military interference, and it complements the repressive laws that had been approved, like the Anti-terrorist Law, all directed at the repression of workers, students and the rest of the groups of the people.

From the Liga de la RevoluciÃ³n Socialista, we are making an urgent appeal to all organizations connected with the workers’ and popular movement, with all the means at their disposal, to raise a big campaign that will serve to condemn and overthrow this virtual military occupation. We urge the men and women comrades of the workers’ and socialist left, and independents inside the UCR, to begin to organize and set up this campaign at every school and workplace inside the university beside the struggle for the budget.

Down with the pacts and laws that conceal military penetration of the region under the sham of fighting drug trafficking!

No US military presence in Costa Rica, Latin America, or any region of the world!